Design of a Coupling/decoupling Mechanism of End Effector for a First Aid Robot’s Injection Function

Abstract

This paper details the design of a special end effector that allows a first aid robot to quickly and accurately give an injection. There is growing demand for robots that can perform rescue operations on behalf of rescue workers in dangerous areas such as disasters or wars. The robots are primarily responsible for searching and transporting the injured, but they sometimes need to perform rescue activities after providing simple first aid at the site. Previous studies have proposed special end effectors that are suitable for onsite situations and enable robots to perform the given task quickly and accurately. This paper proposes a mechanism design for the injection device, a special end effector that would allow a robot performing first aid to give an injection to the injured. The proposed mechanism enables easy but strong coupling/decoupling of a medical auto-injector. Only a small amount of force needs to be exerted using the robot manipulator. Coupling is maintained by an exceptionally large force. Also, the optimal design value for the injection device joint was derived using mathematical analyses and experiments with the coupling structure.